Partners

The Confucius Institute for Scotland was set up a partnership and over the years it has developed an effective partnership model to help it achieve greater levels of outreach.

Fudan University

All Confucius Institutes have a Chinese partner and the Confucius Institute for Scotland’s partner is one of China’s leading universities – Fudan. Located on the east coast of of the country, Fudan University is situated in Shanghai, the most dynamic metropolis in China.

The University began its life in 1905 and from its beginnings over a century ago, across various ranking criteria, it is consistently placed in the top three in China. With over 25,000 students studying across a range of faculties including Arts, Science, Law, Business, Technology and Medicine, Fudan University is well on the way to achieving its ambition of becoming a leading university in the world.

As our partner Fudan carefully selects experienced teaching staff and a small team of of Fudan Masters candidates in teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages to spend between one and four years working with us. The teaching team at the Institute is a vital component of the Institute’s work and the quality of staff sent from Fudan has helped us to build a reputation for excellence. These staff also benefit from the support and input of the University of Edinburgh’s director of Chinese language programmes, Dr Zhu Zhu.

Hanban

The driving force in China for the development of the network of Confucius Institutes is the Office of Chinese Language Council International, more commonly known as Hanban. Hanban supports each Institute in delivery of its objectives through the provision of both financial and physical resources such as library materials and language learning assets.For more information on Hanban click here.

Scottish Government

The Confucius Institute for Scotland was fortunate to receive the support of the Scottish Government when first established in 2007. The establishment of the Institute chimed with the ambition of the Scottish Government to develop more strategic engagement with China. Since 2008 the Scottish Government has evolved and updated its Plan for Engagement with China. The Institute’s focus on education, business and culture is helping to deliver the ambition for Scotland expressed in the current 5 year plan while the increase in the number of Institutes in Scotland to five means that Scotland has one of the highest densities of Confucius Institutes in the world.